US sanctions Philippines-based cyber scam facilitator

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June 1, 2025 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — A Philippine-based company that allegedly serves as a cyber scam facilitator has been sanctioned by the US Department of Treasury.

In a statement, the US Treasury said that Funnull Technology Inc. provides computer infrastructure for hundreds of thousands of websites involved in virtual currency investment scams, commonly known as “pig butchering.”

It said the company enables virtual currency investment scams by purchasing IP addresses in bulk from major cloud services companies worldwide and selling them to cybercriminals to host scam platforms and other malicious web content.

“Americans lose billions of dollars annually to these cyber scams, with revenues generated from these crimes rising to record levels in 2024,” it said.

The US Treasury said that Funnull has directly facilitated several of these schemes, resulting in over $200 million in US victim-reported losses.

Funnull’s administrator, Liu Lizhi, a Chinese national, has likewise been sanctioned by the US Treasury.

The US Treasury said that Liu was involved in and possessed spreadsheets and other documents containing information about Funnull’s employees, their performance and their progress on tasks.

It said the tasks included assigning domain names to cybercriminals, including domains associated with virtual currency investment fraud, phishing scams and online gambling sites.

As a result of the sanctions, the US Treasury said that all property and interests in property of the designated or blocked persons that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons are blocked and must be reported to US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

Further, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked.

“Unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC, or exempt, OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all transactions by US persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of blocked persons,” the US Treasury said.

The company has four Filipino directors and officers based on its general information sheet filed with the Philippines’ Securities and Exchange Commission.

Funnull was registered in September 2021, with the primary purpose of directly or indirectly engaging in the area of information technology.